Kneeling Squat
Trains the Glutes.
- Equipment
- A barbell and a rack
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Kneel on a mat inside a rack with the pins set at about shoulder height when kneeling.
- Take a barbell across your upper back and unrack it.
- Set your knees about hip-width apart and your body upright from knees to head.
- Sit back until your backside touches or approaches your heels.
- Drive the hips forward to return to upright, squeezing the glutes hard at the top.
- Finish tall without arching past straight, then rack the bar.
Common mistakes
- Arching past straight at the top. The finish is a straight line from knees to shoulders; going past it extends the spine rather than the hip.
- Setting up outside a rack. A loaded bar taken from the floor to the shoulders while kneeling is a movement in itself, and the pins remove it.
- Expecting it to train the quadriceps. The knee does not move at all — this is hip extension with the lower leg fixed, which makes it a glute exercise.
- Kneeling on bare floor. The knees carry the whole load against the ground and a pad is part of the setup.